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Frankie Muniz is reflecting on the sacrifices his family made for his Hollywood dreams — and it's hitting him in unexpected ways.
The 38-year-old former child star got candid on the Tuesday, November 26 episode of Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, sharing how his rise to fame as a kid came at a cost for those closest to him.
"When it's happening, you don't realize the sacrifice that every single person is making for you," admitted Muniz.
The Big Fat Liar icon's parents divorced when he was around 11, shortly after he started acting. By the time he was 12, Frankie and his mom, Denise Muniz, moved from North Carolina to New York City to pursue his budding career, leaving his sister, Cristina Muniz, and dad, Francisco Muniz III, behind. "We'd kind of maybe outgrown what we could do in North Carolina, like as an actor," Frankie — whose full name is Francisco Muniz IV — explained.
Frankie began booking roles, and the family's dynamic shifted even more. When he landed the early 2000s sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, they relocated to Los Angeles. Frankie's sister Cristina, who had finally moved to New Jersey to be closer to them, chose to stay behind with their grandparents. "It actually makes me a little bit sad to realize that me following my dream and the things that I got to do affected every single member of my family," he told host Michael Rosenbaum.
"My grandparents, you know, 70, 80 years old whatever, were then raising my sister, you know what I mean?" Frankie reflected. "The fact that they were so willing to help out and do whatever they could do to be available to go where I needed to go, to do what I needed to do, you know, it's a crazy thought."
The Agent Cody Banks star went on to explain that 2024 has been "the first time I thought about the past enough to think about the sacrifice that people made. It made me really sad, I mean happy that I had people in my life like that."
After stepping back from acting in 2008, Frankie pursued a second career: race car driving. "I'm extremely excited to announce that I will be racing full time next season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," he announced on Tuesday, October 22 via Fox & Friends.
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